Brick by Brick
by Sir Pugsly III
Summary: Discontenued. Lack of interest. Sorry.
1. A Strange Paradise

**Chapter one: A Strange Paradise**

Desmond roused from his sleep. He felt water crashing against and over his legs. He also felt sand under him. He tried to open his eyes but quickly changed his mind as the light of day almost blinded him. Though, to be honest, he was quite content just lying there, without a care in the world but something compelled him to get up. A voice in the back of his head. It sounded like his voice but it also sounded completely different. It said one word over and over again, and when he threatened to drift off to sleep again it screamed waking him again. '_Survive…survive…_' over and over again intill he couldn't take it anymore. He rolled onto his back, his eyes shot open, and it stopped. All at once the voice stopped. He didn't care what it was but it was gone now. He sat up and looked around. A beach on the edge of a huge forest, trees at least six or seven times his height, and he was almost six feet tall. In the distance, past the bay he saw mountains on a far off island and all around him he noticed pigs and cows and all sorts of different animals moving about.

He stood and began walking towards the trees. He took a few large branches and fashioned them into a pickaxe type tool. Through the trees he noticed a sharp hill that made a sort of wall around where he was and the strip of beach he woke up on. He also noticed a patch of stone with large black blotches on its surface. He walked to it. '_Coal…_' came the same voice as earlier. He didn't even think as he began mining. He dug intill he had a pile that would last a while. He moved out of the small indent and saw his elongated shadow on the ground. Looking up he saw that the sun was going down. He needed a shelter. So he took the pick head off of the pickaxe and replaced it with a sharp end of stone to make an axe. He moved toward the trees and began chopping. Soon he had a large pile of wood and he quickly began fashioned them into planks. It was almost midnight by the time he had it finished and something strange was going on. He heard a hissing. He looked around and saw a phallic looking green monster with four legs moving towards him. Desmond didn't think anything of it and began walking towards it. 'You failed…' said the voice again. Only too late did he realize what it ment. The green creature exploded sending him flying against a tree. He heard the sickening crack as his head his the tree and felt the life leave him. All was black…nothing moved…but he thought he heard waves…

**Well...there you have it. I said it would never happen...but it happened. So enjoy it please.**


	2. A Great Start

After what seemed like hours, Desmond began to feel a crunching under his feet, like it was spreading around him. Sand! Desmond's eyes shot open immediately, fully aware that he wasn't pushing up daisies. With newfound relief, he took a casual look around. He was back on the warm, sanded beach, with no true feeling of pain. No sickness, except for the minor brush of daze, and the over whelming joy of being alive again. He looked around and found his planks and tools, along with the 7 foot wide crater in the ground.

'_Damn…' ,_he thought as he trudged across the landscape, recollect his lost items.

Finally reacquiring everything he had dropped, said male made his way to the edge of the hill, where he began to dig out the coal and began making a larger hole to live in. By the time he was done he had a rather average sized room to sleep in. He then began working out all the other kinks. It was getting dark first off. And he really, really didn't want to die again so he began on a few torches. He chipped smaller chunks off of the coal ores and splintered the end of a stick so it would stay without any adhesive or tie. He worked for about an hour and when he finished he had about thirty torches. He then had to figure out how to stick them in the wall.

After about five minutes he figured out that if he lit it and made a small, narrow hole in the wall it would stay lit and stay in the wall perfectly. Desmond walked outside and realized that it was actually extremely late and he could see other monsters other that the green things, which he decided to call 'creepers' because of how that seemed to jump from everywhere. He saw what looked like a walking corpse, a human skeleton with a bow and arrow, and spiders that made the cows look tiny is comparison. Another thing he noticed is that they only show up at night, around the same time the cows and pigs and things disappear. He decided to wait out the night after he had created a door by making a large plank, cutting windows into it and placing it in the doorway. He was proud of his shelter. It was warm, and safe. He moved to the one side of the room that was the farthest from the door and began forming a pallet of some wool that he got from sheering sheep just before nightfall. He laid down and fell asleep almost instantly.

The next morning Desmond awoke to the smell of burning flesh. He almost threw up as he stepped outside and watched three zombies try to attack him, only to burst into flames and burn to cinders almost instantly. This didn't bother him as much as the smell of them burning. The smell was something that would send even the hardest stomachs turning and twisting. It eventually became too much and Desmond ran to the creeper crater and emptied the contents of his stomach into the pit. He quickly filled the hole in with dirt. After he was done he watched the grass grow. Literally. It took five minutes for the grass to completely over take the dirt.

'_This world keeps getting stranger and stranger,'_ he thought with a sigh as he began exploring his self-proclaimed property. After about five hours he had a mental map of this entire area. North, as he called it, was where the clouds were always flying. No matter how the wind was blowing, the clouds stayed north. To the north was the cave that led outside of his hamlet. His home was on the western side in the hamlet canyon wall. The east was heavily forested and was actually extremely hard to maneuver through. The entire south side was a bay that led out to sea after a ways through a channel. The most surprising thing about his hamlet was that at the center, or as close to the center as he cared to measure, was a pool of lava that just bubbled up from underneath the ground.

The sun was at the epitaph of its arch so Desmond knew it was about noon. That was when he felt the hunger hit him. He needed food. So he went back to the house and found a reasonably sized handle and a long chip of stone. Desmond sharpened the edges of the chip so that they were sharp and carved a hole in the bottom so the handle would fit in without wobbling around. He then brandished his makeshift sword and swung it around to test its effectiveness. He stepped outside and began swinging around. But after a minute the blade started to wobble and when he swung particularly hard the blade flew off into the trees.

'_Oh crap…that's not good…',_ he thought as he started off in the direction he thought the sword blade flew in. After a few minutes of searching, he finally found it, along with the pig it had impaled.

"Well…that's one way," he said, jumping slightly from the sound of his voice which he hadn't heard in several days. He pulled the blade out of the pig's stomach and began cutting the meat so he could store it easier.

"Now comes a new problem…where to store this crap," he said taking the meat and beginning to walk back to his shelter. He scrambled up to the cliff wall that his house was built into and looked around for a place to build a store house. Deciding that a cellar type room would be the most effective, he started digging the door and stairs down to what will be the main chamber.

After he had the stairs dug out he began making the main store house and made it long enough and wide enough to allow about a meter of clearance between the sides, where the chests and boxes will be, and long enough for three chests on each side. After it was done he walked back up the stairs and stood back to see his handy work. On the outside his house looked like a wall with a small door and a window about four feet wide and two feet tall, and the store room looked like something from _The Wizard of Oz. _He was proud of his handiwork, even if the ceiling threatened to fall in places in the store room, and that the window of his house had to be propped up with a plank frame to keep it from caving in. But it kept him safe, so he was happy. By the time he was finished admiring his handiwork, he realized it was getting late and decided it was time to head in for the night.

Desmond had almost drifted off to sleep when a girl's scream shattered the silence…

**Authors note: Sorry guys for the huge paragraphs but the first few chapters are going to be more action than talking. It will change soon tho...very soon...muahaha. :3**


	3. Not so Alone Anymore

Desmond bolted upright in his bed when he heard the scream. Going over this whole situation in his head, he knew it must have come from the cave leading outside of his domain, the same cave that he had seen the largest group of monsters. He stood up quick as grease lightning, ran to his sword that was propped up on the wall next to the door and ran out of the house. After collecting himself and pointing himself in the direction of the cave proper, he started to run, lighting a torch all the while.

It took seconds for him to reach the cave and see the situation first hand. A beautiful girl with red hair, about his age, 16 or 17, she was wearing a thick jacket and jeans even though it was relatively warm even at night, she was backed into a corner by three zombies and a spider that had mobbed together in hopes of each of them getting a prize for the kill. Desmond ran forward and sliced the head off of the nearest zombie and putting himself between the monsters and the girl. The zombie that he had killed burst into a cloud of white smoke and disappeared without a trace of blood or any type of corpse. By then, the other two zombies had converged on him and were scratching at him, leaving deep gashes all along his arms.

"Dammit!" he yelled as the blood began to turn the shirt sleeve black on his right arm, also forcing him to switch sword hands. Desmond had enough time to cleave open the stomach and chest of the second zombie before the spider lunged at him, driving its fangs deep into his leg.

Screaming in pain, he swung his sword around and sliced the spider's abdomen in half, leaving a mess of sticky webbing on his sword. Dropping down to one knee and pulling the fang of the spider out of his leg, he knew he was probably going to die but he wasn't going to die without a fight. He faced the last zombie and as it charged he thrust his sword into its stomach and almost smiled as it burst into smoke.

It took almost every ounce of energy to stand and walk over to the girl, who was scared out of her mind sitting curled into a ball in the crevasse between the cave wall and a large boulder.

"Come on, it's safe now." Desmond said offering his hand.

"I-is it r-really?" she said taking his hand, her eyes and cheeks still red from crying.

"Yes, I promise, they're all gone. And it's almost morning." He helped her up and they began walking back towards the house. She didn't talk any more the entire trip back, and he didn't blame her. He himself could barely walk from the blood loss and pain, all of which made him all the happier when they reached the door. Walking her to the bed and sat her down.

"You can take the bed, after what you've been through you deserve it,"

"Thank you," at that she rolled over and fell asleep almost instantly.

Desmond smiled as he noticed her breathing normally again and went back over by the door, stepped outside and moved silently down the store room stairs to get the wool cloth to dress his wounds. He fell asleep leaning against the wall when he had finished.

The next morning he awoke with every inch of his body aching and it felt like a monkey was playing bongos on his head. He walked slowly and groggily up the stairs only to find the girl he had rescued the night before leaned up against the way under the window crying. As he got closer she jumped and looked at him with red, bloodshot eyes.

"I see you had a good night sleep," Desmond said walking over to her.

"Hah, that's funny," the sarcasm dripping as she wiped a tear off her cheek. "Thanks for saving me yesterday."

"Don't worry about it; anyone would have done the same." He shrugged off the comment and helped her up. "What's your name anyway?"

"Jessie, and yours?"

"Desmond. Do you have anywhere to stay?"

"Well, no, but I was wondering if I could stay with you, seeing as you have all this space and nothing to do with it,"

Desmond thought about for a moment, going over the pros and cons in his head. They would get twice as much done during the day, and be twice as secure at night. Not to mention that the loneliness was slowly driving him insane.

"Yeah, sure, you can stay, but seeing as I can barely walk and talk at the same time without blacking out you'll have to be the one to dig out your room."

"Yeah," she trailed off rubbing her neck guiltily. "Sorry about that." She walked over to him and acted as a crutch so they could walk inside a little easier.

"First things first," saying this as he sat down, half falling and half sitting. "Go down to the store room and get four sticks and enough stone to form a pick head from."

She left and came back with enough materials to make what they needed. Desmond then spent the next hour showing Jessie how to shape the pick head and drill the hole into the center, then how to set the handle in the hole and flatten the end of the stick so it wouldn't fly off while she was working. After about two hours she had figured it out and was ready to use it.

"Just go to that wall, dig about three or four feet then dig out sideways to hollow out the rest of your room," laughing painfully as she walked over to the wall and stared at it for a while before digging. After she had gone about a foot into the rock he realized she had gotten the hang of it. It was right then did he realize he hadn't eaten anything. He stood shakily and limped over to the ham that he had hung over a torch to cook the previous night, grabbed it and began eating slowly. It tasted like warm, meaty, bacony heaven. He made sure that there was enough for Jessie when he had finished and walked back to the bed. As he got to the bed and laid back down he noticed something, he didn't have to hobble, in fact, there was no pain at all. After removing the bandages around his legs he saw that the fang wounds from the spider had almost disappeared even though when he had checked them earlier they were still bleeding profusely. He also saw that all of the scraped on his arms that were still scabbing the night before were healed completely.

"Why can't this world just make sense?" this he said to himself but Jessie still heard him. She walked through the door wide eyed as she saw the wounds healed completely, leaving nothing but scars.

"So, magic bacon huh?" she said trying to hide her grin.

"It seems so. There's some over there for you." Said he, motioning towards the torch grill.

"Don't mind if I do! I'm starving! My room is done by the way, so you can sleep in your own bed tonight." She said chuckling and taking the rest of the 'magical' bacon and going back into her room.

It had taken her all day to finish it and it was getting late, he could hear the zombies moaning outside the door.

"Goodnight! Tomorrow I show you the rest of the hamlet, without the zombies!" he added as he heard no answer.

"Fine with me! Night!" at that she shut the door and all was silent. Desmond laid down for a while thinking about the events of the day. His thoughts always came back to the girl, however. He was happy to not be alone anymore. He showed an unseen grin and went to sleep.

**Authors note: So i added a new character to the mix and tried playing with the layout. Please review if youd please a new author. :3**


	4. Oppertunities and Choices

The next morning they had gotten up and Desmond and Jessie had explored the hamlet a bit more. They had also realized that just going back and forth from the house at night to working during the day wasn't going to work if they wanted to do anything substantial, or even live above ground actually.

They spent the rest of the day clearing trees and bushes away from the canyon walls, setting torches about every few meters to give a definite border to the canyon. Judging by the sound of moans, hisses, and arrows being slung from the cave they would also need some sort of a wall or gate to keep the monsters in the cave, and let all humans that managed to get through the cave know that they had reached somewhere relatively safe.

Come morning the next day they would build the gate house and signal fire, so that the pillar of smoke would let anyone around the area know that there were people here.

"Well if there are monsters in the cave how do other people get through when you about died just fighting three zombies _outside_ the cave?" this all said with a smirk on Jessie's part.

"Hey, there were three zombies and a spider, first of all. Second, how did you get through then, huh?"

"I-that's a good point actually." They were sitting on the beach where the water had carved a slight cliff, only about a five foot drop into the water if you fell, but it still wasn't a place you wanted to fall. They had been arguing about what they wanted to do with the land around their new home.

"Not so sure of yourself now are you?" brushing of some sand from his pants after he stood beside her.

"Oh, shut up," she pushed his leg harder than she had meant to and he lost his balance, falling head first into the water below.

He hit the water, expecting to see sand and the bottom, what he actually saw scared him. Right below the surface of the muddy water there was a few layers of what he could see was some sort of sand stone, but below that was a huge cavern filled with water. It looked like it went completely under the entire hamlet and ended at the cliff walls on the surface.

Although the entire thing was impressive, that's not what caught his attention. To the left (or to the right since he is upside down) he saw a shimmer in the water. The sun had shown through the water just enough to hit the blue jewel that had caught Desmond's eyes.

"_Lapis Lazuli…" _the voice in his head said informing him of his discovery. Making a mental note of where this was he righted himself and swam to the surface.

Desmond's head hit the surface and he gasped for air, just now hearing the screams of 'Oh god,' and 'I'm so sorry,' that came from the girl about five feet above him.

Coughing, he swam to the shore and began climbing up to her. "I'm fine, don't worry, just don't ever do that again." Honestly, he almost wanted to thank her for pushing him. After all it was the fall that gave him his idea on how to impress her.

To think he was just going to find a shiny rock or something, now he has a real gem to use for the necklace he was going to make; now all he needed was some gold. That was the problem.

Jessie tried to help him up but only managed to drop the winded man back onto the ground half way to his feet.

"Stop helping!"

"Why?"

"Because you aren't helping!"

"You just said i was!" by this time he was back to his feet, still coughing up water, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for you to fall,"

"It's alright, it's alright," he began thinking about how he could get the gems without her knowing about it, "Just, go back to the house and get me some magic bacon for Christ sake," seeing his grin Jessie was instantly relieved.

"I'll be right back!" running and disappearing behind a tree back to the house on the other side of the hamlet.

Turning back to the water he stepped back to the edge and looked down.

"God, I am an idiot," scolding himself he closed his eyes and dived back into the water hunting for the gem that had tempted him earlier.

Authors note: IM SO SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG TO UPDATE! alots been happening to me...a bad break up that i wish never happened now...um...my math grade is down the tubes...i dont know what im doing anymore. oh and lets not forget the freaking musical im in that hase almost every day from 7:30 am to 9 pm or 6 to 9 every other day. so im sorry.


	5. End Results

Desmond had three seconds to think of how stupid he was until he hit the water. A pickaxe strapped to his belt and eyes wide trying to find the blue gem he saw earlier. The water was crystal clear, no matter how the fish swam around him or tried desperately to disturb the perfectly smooth lake bed no dust or silt flew up.

Having been an apparently good swimmer helped him glide effortlessly through the water and to the bottom. Though, the chance to look around this new world was beckoning him. Allowing himself a look around, he saw strange and interesting things.

A rock bigger than his house floated effortlessly through the water as if it were a pebble. A huge black shape with long tendrils and red, glowing eyes swam past him. In the caverns that dug into the wall he could see small red lights piercing the darkness.

Eventually, he found what he was looking for.

The small blue stone, or what he thought was a small blue stone when he saw it from near the surface, was actually about the size of a large football. Desmond didn't know if he was lucky to find such a huge gem or extremely unlucky for having to drag it back to the surface.

Taking the pickaxe from his belt he began carefully chipping away at the stone that held the gem. Each strike sent a shockwave through the water, as if miniature explosions were going off around him.

The Lazuli was almost free after about fifteen seconds. It seemed like an eternity underwater. He drew his arm back for the final blow, but something grabbed his arm mid swing.

The interloper that was trying to keep him from taking the stone was black as night. The monster had six tentacles that he could see and in the middle of them all was a mouth, if you could call it that.

It looked like a maw with serrated teeth around the edges in rows. The voice was back, sounding like he was watching his favorite television show.

"_It's a squid…try to survive…" _it chuckled at him omnipotently and faded back into his mind. The squid was baring down on him fast.

Without thinking he swung the pickaxe and the tentacle holding his arms, it severed cleanly and then disappeared in a cloud of bubbles.

This effort only succeeded in making the squid thoroughly ready to kill the invader into his word. It lashed at Desmond with two tentacles that were folded onto its body before. The ends of these were barbed, which Desmond learned quickly as it drove home into his stomach.

As one final try at survival he dove at the squid bringing the tip of the pick through the sack that housed its brain. The creature emitted a squeal that would have deafened him if they weren't underwater. The carcass of the squid sank to the bottom and disintegrated into a cloud of bubbles.

Desmond was almost out of breath, bleeding to death and, with the stone that he had broken free after the fight, he was over encumbered. It was getting darker and harder to swim. He was almost positive the barbs were poisoned, but that didn't matter now, he would be fine if he could get on the surface.

He swam to the only patch of surface he could see. His head hit surface and he noticed two things. First, Jessie was back on the shore and she was pissed. Second, in the minute and a half he was down there, which seems like such a little bit of time on the surface but took so long when you're actually down under the water, the sun had managed to go down.

It was dark. He was most likely poisoned. The girl he risked his life for was now beyond mad at him. He was bleeding profusely. And above all else, Jessie may find out about the gem, his present for her.

"What in the hell are you thinking?"

"I'm not sure, something like 'I'm sorry, I'm bleeding profusely and I really need some bacon,' how does that sound?" dragging himself out of the water and lying face down in the sand.

Jessie ran down the small ledge only to see Desmond's blood staining the sand.

"Oh god, Desmond! What did you do to yourself?" kneeling beside him and shifting him onto his back. There was a hole, about two inches wide on his stomach, a perfect circle carved in his belly.

She was so busy getting the bacon out of her bag that she didn't notice his, bulging with whatever was inside. Ripping a smaller strip off the pork chop she had brought and lifting his head to feed him. Desmond chewed agonizingly slow and swallowed painfully.

Almost instantly the hole began to close and the smaller scrapes and bruises disappeared. After a few more strips he was healed but still very weak. Smiling as he opened his eyes again, she sat him up against the rock wall.

She then slapped him hard across the face.

"Ow! What was that for?" his eyes shot open as his skin began to sting.

"That's for worrying me so damn much! What were you thinking going back it?"

"Can I blame the pig?" still rubbing the back of his head, he grinned big as a small pig hopped into view and oinked in announcement.

She slapped him again.

"OW! Can you please stop doing that?"

"Not until you stop being such an idiot!"

"I said I was sorry,"

"If you were sorry you wouldn't have done it in the first place! Come on, get up. It's almost midnight, we have to try and get back."

It took half an hour just to get Desmond to stand up, let alone to get him all the way back to the house-bunker-thing that they lived in. Jessie, obviously yelling the entire time, helping him every second of the hour long walk back, allowing herself the occasional smack on the way.


End file.
